In general, when the user puts dirty laundry into a wash tub, a washer washes the laundry by mixing a detergent and water, and rinses and dries the laundry.
In addition, a clothes dryer dries the laundry by absorbing moisture from the laundry by sending hot air generated by a heater into a drum.
The washer and the dryer are mostly installed indoors, but can be installed in a special space such as an outside warehouse or an underground washing room.
Recently, researches have been actively made to do housework without temporal and spatial restrictions, by connecting home devices to an internet environment and remotely controlling operations of the home devices.
Especially, researchers have made efforts to apply such a technology to a product which performs one operation for a relatively long time, such as the washer and the dryer. However, when the washer is not operated over a predetermined time, the power supply of the washer is automatically cut to minimize power consumption. In the case that the power supply of the washer is cut, the washer cannot be remotely controlled.
When the user intends to do remote controlling and monitoring through an internet, a PC for monitoring must be continuously turned on and a home network must be installed. As a result, the unit cost of production increases.
Moreover, when the washer and the dryer are installed in the outside warehouse or the underground washing room, it is difficult to set up the network environment. To operate the washer or the dryer, the user must carry the laundry, put the laundry into the washer or the dryer and input an operation command. To check an operation state of the washer or the dryer, the user must frequently go to the washer or the dryer.
In addition, the user cannot continuously check an error state which may occur during the operation. Accordingly, although the washer or the dryer is not operated due to an error generated in the washing or drying operation, the user does not recognize the error and leaves the washer or the dryer in the error state.
It is also inconvenient for the user to go to the washer or the dryer and input the operation command.
In order to solve the foregoing problems, referring to FIG. 1, a monitoring device 10 is mounted indoors so that the user can check operation states of a washer 20 and a dryer 30 installed outdoors.
However, the conventional monitoring device 10 displays only the state of the product selected by the user. That is, when the user selects the washer 20, the monitoring device 10 displays the state of the washer 20, and when the user selects the dryer 30, the monitoring device 10 displays the state of the dryer 30.
Therefore, in the case that an error occurs in the product which has not been selected by the user, the monitoring device 10 cannot inform the user of the error state.
In the conventional art, the user can control the on and off functions of the washer 20 and the dryer 30 such as an operation and a temporary stop, but cannot control the detailed operations of the washer 20 and the dryer 30.
Moreover, the user cannot check by the monitoring device 10 whether the current states of the washer 20 and the dryer 30 are controllable or incontrollable. When the user attempts to control the operations of the washer 20 and the dryer 30 in the incontrollable state, the user may misunderstand that the monitoring device 10 has been out of order.